Development of a Blockchain-Based Certificate Verification System for Nigerian Tertiary Institutions in the South East Zone

Certificate fraud is a persistent and costly problem across Nigerian tertiary institutions, undermining public trust in academic qualifications and disadvantaging legitimate graduates in the job market. This project developed a proof-of-concept blockchain-based academic certificate verification system applicable to tertiary institutions in South East Nigeria. The system was implemented using Ethereum smart contracts (Solidity language) deployed on the Ganache local test blockchain. An institution-facing web application developed in React allowed authorised academic registrars to upload certificate hashes (SHA-256) linked to student identification numbers, course details, and graduation year. An employer-facing verification portal enabled real-time certificate authenticity checks by entering the certificate hash or scanning a QR code printed on physical documents. Metamask wallet authentication was used to ensure only authorised institutional accounts could issue records. The system was tested with 150 simulated certificate records. Certificate issuance gas cost averaged 41,200 Gwei per record on the test blockchain. Verification query response time was below 1 second. Hash matching accuracy was 100 percent across all test cases. The immutability of issued records was confirmed through attempted tampering tests. QR code verification workflow was rated at 4.5 out of 5 for ease of use by a panel of 10 HR professionals. The study recommends migrating to a permissioned blockchain such as Hyperledger Fabric to eliminate gas costs and enable national inter-institutional deployment coordinated by the National Universities Commission.

Keywords: blockchain, certificate verification, academic fraud, Ethereum, South East Nigeria